From ethical dilemmas about preservation of wildlife to the innovation of thousands of different variants of a single biological organism, SB7.0 has covered it all!Over the past 2 days, experts from around the globe have convened at the National University of Singapore’s University Cultural Center to discuss their most recent research including topics such as healthcare and technological applications to revolutionize the field of synthetic biology as well as the role of synthetic biology applications in biodiversity & conservation. Day 1 opened with the panel “From Ideas to Impact’. Reshma Shetty, Co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks explained how her firm has created the world’s first foundry to scale and automate thousands of biological designs. Her team’s’ innovation has helped automate and expedite this rather tedious process, giving researchers one less worry!Day 2 focused on the development of ingenious new biomaterials. Xiao-Xia Xia and her team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University have optimized the process of creating synthetic dragline spider silk by using bacteria containing the gene to produce this silk from spiders. This silk has high tensile strength and by varying the silk density with elastin, the team generated variants of synthetic hydrogel of different stiffness to act as a medium to grow cells. Their work has many different applications such as contact lenses, and glue.The second half of the day was laced with varied topics about conservation of wildlife. Many researchers spoke about ways to conserve animal species near extinction. Frank Rheindt, a researcher at the National University of Singapore contrasted the ethical dilemma his team faced when deciding to breed an organism that is the last of its kind with another closely related organism. An interesting question posed to the panel at the Q&A session was on about the definition of “nature”. “And what is considered natural”. Kent Redford, a session speaker reasoned that, “There is no one universal definition of the word (Nature). What is deemed by someone as this is different from what it is deemed by someone else.” Cultural diversity is key factor in why the word has no universal definition. Day 3 of SB7.0 promises to offer as many interesting discussions as the first two days. Can’t make it to Singapore, be sure to watch the livestream here: http://sb7.info/

The poster 'boys' of #sb7conf Let the talks begin! pic.twitter.com/WJQAq70app

— NUS SynCTI (@nus_syncti) June 13, 2017

Written by: Lee Hwee Siong Julian, National University of Singapore

RJ Kirk, great talk on our role being tech support for the biosphere. @Intrexon @SynBioBeta #sb7conf pic.twitter.com/u5CoGSQbdy

— john cumbers (@johncumbers) June 13, 2017

Christina Smolke blowing minds; engineering complex enzyme pathways in yeast #SB7conf pic.twitter.com/mTTbeZ4uns

— karen ingram (@krening) June 13, 2017

What do you wish were true about #synbio? Looking forward to #sb7conf #synbioleap experiment day 2 #ilike #iwish #iwonder #iwill @synbioleap pic.twitter.com/i7YkdpZza5

— Megan J Palmer (@meganjpalmer) June 14, 2017

Awesome: #sb7conf speakers promoting today's #iwish #synbioleap activity. What do you wish were true about #SynBio? pic.twitter.com/DtCk3P94v4

— Megan J Palmer (@meganjpalmer) June 14, 2017

Memorandum of understanding signed between Synthetic Biology Australasia and the Asian Federation of Biotechology here at #SB7Conf pic.twitter.com/z0XMTt1VR1

— BioBricks Foundation (@biobricks) June 14, 2017

It is time for synthetic biology to enter into the toolbox of conservation, how can it help? Madhu Rao @ #SB7Conf pic.twitter.com/8l1JmFVTh3

— BioBricks Foundation (@biobricks) June 14, 2017

Madeleine Van Oppen @spectacularia talking engineering resilience to climate change in coral reefs #sb7conf pic.twitter.com/6OnbjW7eUd

— Claudia Vickers (@claudiaevickers) June 14, 2017

#iwish we had a less conservative term for the inspiring & innovative #conservation projects being discussed at #sb7conf #synbioleap pic.twitter.com/hBJFTE9ojc

— Megan J Palmer (@meganjpalmer) June 14, 2017

#iwish we had a better understanding of in vivo #synbio component/network behaviour #sb7conf pic.twitter.com/oa4QyurAvp

— Claudia Vickers (@claudiaevickers) June 14, 2017

Marta Mañas, from the @CNB_CSIC, talking about engineering bacteria to attack tumors. #sb7conf pic.twitter.com/NZWwKdcWBi

— Angel Goñi Moreno (@AngelGMoreno) June 14, 2017